Special urban transformation law for Istanbul is coming
Mehmet Özhaseki, Minister of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change, said that a special urban transformation law could be enacted for Istanbul and that an extraordinary meeting could be held for this purpose without waiting for the opening of the Parliament.
Mehmet Özhaseki, Minister of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change, answered questions in a programme on A Haber.
Minister Özhaseki’s agenda was especially Istanbul’s urban transformtion against earthquake.
“We should keep the earthquake out of politics.” Özhaseki said that a commission was established including Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, 39 district mayors and AFAD, and that work on Istanbul urbantransformation has been going on for two weeks.
Minister Özhaseki noted that the legal infrastructure of the special urban transformaton project for Istanbul should be prepared.
Stating that a special law can be enacted for Istanbul by calling the Parliament to an extraordinary meeting, Özhaseki said that there are 600 thousand buildings that can collapse in a possible 7-magnitude earthquake.
Minister Özhaseki said, “If two buildings collapsed on every street, everything would stop. Istanbul would turn into a huge prison.”
Özhaseki said that in the first stage, they will move 600 thousand buildings with the risk of collapse to the reserve areas on the Anatolian and European sides, and 150 thousand houses will be built on the Canal Istanbul line.
This doesn’t make sense. How are they going to “move” 600,000 buildings? Do they mean they are going to tear down and rebuild 600,000 buildings? If they are going to build new houses why are they only building them in the really expensive part of the European side. Why not build some on both sides of the city and in places where regular people can afford to live.